Transitioning between talk therapy and trauma therapy

Hi, all.

I hope you’re well. It’s been a bumpy ride for me over the last few months, going from a counsellor whose first response to my presenting issue was ‘And you can’t just let this go?’ to somebody who truly does understand the impact this deception has had on me.

I’ve been reading Bessel van der Kolk, and doing a bit more research. I had a conversation with a friend with some overlapping experience on Thursday, and they asked whether anybody had ever talked about my experiences in terms of PTSD before. They haven’t, but the more I read, the more I think I am experiencing symptoms consistent with post traumatic stress.

Whilst my friend was supposedly dying, I never got the chance to trust that there would be a resolution, that she would eventually be OK. I remain burdened by certain aspects of the information that was shared, and these cause problems particularly at night.

What I wanted to ask was – is there anyone here who has accessed specialist trauma therapy through talking with a counsellor or similar...or are these services usually self-referral? I am in the UK, if that is relevant.


I plan to have an initial conversation about this with R on Thursday, but she goes on leave after that. I'm hoping to be able to continue our work afterwards.

Yes, I went into specialist trauma therapy with an EMDR T by self referral and also continued with regular T. I am also in the UK but see my T's privately. Maybe you could talk to your GP to see if you could get referred for trauma therapy , although there's always a long wait for things. I don't feel the standard CBT they usually throw at you really does it for trauma , it needs a more trained person. My T told me the NHS are starting to do a personal health budget thing now where they pay for treatment the person wants and needs , like he said one client he had wanted massage therapy so they paid for it rather than do something that doesn't work. Did you look at TRE Trauma Release Exercises which you can do by yourself and are good for trauma. I'm sorry your original counselor didn't understand the impact that had.

Thanks, Out There.

I'm interested in any self-help stuff that might help remove a few spikes from the hamster wheel that is currently going round and round in my head. I've not come across TRE before...will have to look into them.

Sounds interesting about the new 'personal budget' for healthcare...will keep my ear to the ground about that.

I can't help with how things work in the UK, but wanted to weigh in that Somatic Experiencing and Brain Spotting have both been very helpful to me in healing from trauma. EMDR helped some as well. All of them have proved more helpful than talk therapy for me.

I've found talk therapy works very well for trauma. Never had to do anything else

For me too, psychoanalytic talk therapy has worked well for processing trauma (it's still a work in progress though). Can't imagine using any specific trauma therapy because I don't have concrete traumatic memories that need to be processed but my whole childhood was in some sense inherently traumatic.

I was on a PTSD board in a former life (LOL) and there were a lot of people from the UK on there. If you want trauma therapy through the NHS you do indeed have to work through their system in order to be referred for trauma therapy. Their resources are so thin that there is a waiting period and of course they want to reserve trauma therapy for those who actually need it, not those who walk off the street telling the docs that's what they want. (Not saying this is you, rather explaining the system.)

As for finding a private therapist, usually you can just find one and make the appointment, especially if you're "self pay".